un-silent night (review)
saturday night i was part of one the most awesome performance art pieces [i’m not sure if that’s what to call it] i’ve ever witnessed. the idea behind “unsilent night” is as brilliant as its execution.
through word of mouth/web/email etc somewhere between 500-700 people (my own estimation) gathered at washington square park on saturday night at 7:00. the organizer, phil kline, could have greatly benefitted from a megaphone as he tried to address the crowd but everyone got the important point, the “1-2-3-now” at the end.
“now” was the moment at which about 100 people pressed play on the cassette decks of their battery operated “boom boxes” (aka “ghetto blasters” aka portable stereos). everyone received pre-recorded tapes from the organizer/composer and each tape had a different piece of the overall composition. i wasn’t sure what i expected to hear but as we started to walk out of washington square park heading towards tompkins square park, a peaceful, hazy mix of bells, percussion and synthesized long notes was building all around me.
the march didn’t have any police to stop traffic and after getting separated across a few lights, the people in front waited for people to pull together behind cooper union and started stopping traffic wholesale from there until the end of the march.
the music itself always had a few different patterns going at any given time and sometimes it was hard to tell difference between when music was actually changing and when someone had their (louder than average) boom box temporarily pointed at you.
my favorite part was walking down the crosstown blocks; the music would grew in intensity from bouncing back & forth between the buildings. also, a lot of people came to their windows, some holding small children, so that they could see what was going on.
through 12 years of practice (or extreme luck) the piece ended just about two minutes after the group formed one large circle upon arriving in tompkins square park. the percussion & bells faded first and we were just left wishing it wouldn’t end as the final notes got quieter and less frequent until the the piece just evaporated. people gave a hearty round of applause and then just went their separate ways.
